General Policing Issues
UPDATE
ON POLICE PAY 2008 AND BEYOND
Please
see below, a copy of a letter from the Home Secretary to Chair of
the Police Negotiating Board dated 08 January 2008 and the response
from the Scottish Police Federation for your information. These issues
are of course being discussed by the SPF and the Staff Side of the
PNB and I will keep you advised of developments.
Joe
Grant
General
Secretary
Letter
from the Home Secretary to Chair of the Police Negotiating Board dated
08 January 2008
Dear
John
I
am writing to set out my approach to the police officer pay award
for 2008 and beyond. I fully recognise the views and responses
of PNB members to my decision on the 2007 police officer settlement
but I would like to now focus on how we consider and progress discussions
on future police officer pay settlements.
2007
was a challenging year for public sector pay and the police service
was no exception to this. Then as now pay awards needed to reflect
government policy on public sector pay and for police officers in
2007, I needed to take into account this policy and affordability
considerations.
As
you will be aware the Chancellor has today set out our objectives
on public sector pay for future years and I thought it would be helpful
if I explained at an early stage how I see the implications of this
for the police so that we can all as parties in the police officer
negotiating machinery reflect on these in our discussions on the 2008
pay round.
I
am clear that if at all possible we should avoid in 2008 the lengthy
period of uncertainty we had last year. There were understandable
reasons for this but it is not ideal that in practice the process
could only deliver an outcome just before Christmas – which meant
that police officers could not get their pay until this month.
The Chancellor's statement today sent a strong message that multi-year
pay settlements are the right way forward for the public sector.
I very much agree with this. They bring greater certainty, allow
people to plan and budget better, and free up time for government
and the service to focus on delivery.
I
am therefore keen to begin to explore now, through the PNB, whether
there is a possibility of reaching an agreement on this basis.
I would like the PNB to consider the possibility of a multi-year deal.
I see the index recommended by the Police Arbitration Tribunal as
a very good basis for determining the pay rise for each of the years
in question.
If
it is the view of the PNB that such an agreement would be possible
and real progress can be made on this I believe that these future
settlements could be implemented in full. I know that the next
quarterly meeting of the PNB will take place on 6 February and I should
be grateful if you were able to give initial consideration the issues
set out in this letter at that meeting and report your conclusions
to me.
I
hope this early indication of my thinking is helpful. I am copying
this letter to the Staff and Official Side Chairs and Secretaries
and to Bob and Ken Jones.
Jacqui
Smith
Home
Secretary
SPF
RESPONSE TO HOME SECRETARY'S LETTER OF 8 JANUARY 2008 TO CHAIR OF
THE POLICE NEGOTIATING BOARD ON HER APPROACH TO POLICE OFFICER PAY
AWARD FOR 2008 AND BEYOND.
•
We do not accept her decision on police
pay for 2007.
•
We do not accept her intention to
replace the PNB with a pay review body.
•
We do not accept her desire for a
multi-year pay deal.
•
We do not accept that the index recommended
by the Police Arbitration Tribunal is appropriate for future pay
settlements.
•
We do no accept her ‘belief' that
future settlements could (sic) be implemented in full.
•
We demand a negotiating mechanism
which compensates for our employment conditions, which is fair and
is seen by our members to be fair.
•
We demand a fair pay uprating index.
•
We demand continued unfettered access
to independent arbitration.
•
We demand that agreements of the negotiating
body and arbitration awards be binding on Government.
•
We demand resolution of the 2007 pay
award for England and Wales and Northern Ireland .
